Mercedes CEO Nick Fry has no concerns about the performance of Michael Schumacher at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Schumacher qualified seventh and finished sixth but was consistently outpaced by his team mate Nico Rosberg. It was his first race in F1 since the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix and expectations had been high leading into the weekend. Fry denied that Schumacher was struggling to get to grips with anything in particular and was confident the team would improve this season.

"Listening to the discussions that are going on within the team, I don't actually detect any great difference in feedback between him and Nico," Fry is reported as saying by Autosport. "I think they both know what they want to do to improve the car, and I think they are consistent in their views. There is nothing I have heard that is particular to Michael. But the encouraging thing is that they have got a to do list.

" I think it is a good team, the drivers seem to work together well and I think we are going away from [Bahrain] knowing we have work to do but far from downhearted. We have plenty of upside potential and that is what counts. It is going to be a long old year, and I absolutely believe that we have the people, and the equipment under Ross [Brawn's] guidance to come out of this very well at the end of the year."

Schumacher made no serious complaints after the race and said that the reduced grip under the current regulations made the cars easier to drive than the ones from the mid-2000s.

"In the last laps the sun was quite low and my helmet was a bit out of place, so I had to keep correcting it so I could see properly," he told the Guardian. "But I had no physical problems. I've been training and preparing a lot. The race wasn't very hard for me. If you look at the lap times, you can see that we are a lot slower than when I was driving before. That's because of the tyres we have now. It's not possible to push as hard as before, so therefore it's easier for the driver."

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